Short Sword
When The Samurai Were Ordered To Give Up Swords
The Samurai are possibly the most famous warrior clans in the world. Stately, sombre and meditative in manner and lifestyle alike, they enjoyed a highly superior social status for nearly two millennia.
What could threaten a warrior class as well-respected and powerful as the Samurai? It may seem astonishing, but the force that took the Samurai’s power away from them was nothing other than the rot eating away at the 21st century mind and society – politics.
In 1876, the Meiji government – then in power in Japan – issued an edict called the Haitorei edict. This prohibited the carrying of swords by everyone, except the military and law enforcement officials.
Obviously, it did not prove to be easy to separate the samurai from his sword. The samurais continued to carry swords, except that they did so in disguise. Rather than disguising themselves, they merely disguised the sword as a cane made out of wood or bamboo. The imperfections of wood and the regular joints in bamboo enabled the samurai to make joints and add buttons to scabbards made out of these materials, without risking instant discovery by passers-by or law officials.
These disguised swords were not identical to the traditional swords the Japanese carried. To fit within a bamboo sheath(as most of them were), the blades needed to be straight – a LOT straighter than a curvy katana arcing its way across a holder on the back. From the outside, a disguised bamboo-cane sword really did have to look like a walking-stick being carried by any gentleman.
The “stick swords” thus made were of less quality than the traditional Katana and Wakizashi – the long and short swords, respectively, carried by the samurai in days when they were permitted to carry weapons. However, one man – albeit fictional – has grown famous for his ability to wield the stick sword, despite his blindness.
This man is called Zatoichi.
Zatoichi is a character from Kan Shimozawa’s novels. Blind and a masseur, he is seen as someone perfectly harmless by those who have not seen his intricate swordplay. Keep in mind here that blind people in Japan were treated as if they had been cursed by God, which is to say they were treated worse than dirt. As a result, the origins of his dazzling sword skills are doubly mysterious – as if leaving them unrevealed throughout the book was not suspense-inducing enough!
The name “Zatoichi” can be seen in two ways etymologically. Zatoichi’s actual name, though, is “Ichi”. “Zato” is the lowest of four official ranks in the guide of blind men, the Todoza. In slang, blind men would be referred to as “Zato.” Therefore, “Zatoichi” comes out to mean “lonely, proud Ichi.
Other than this, “Za” stands for “master”, “to” for sword, and “chi” for one. From here, Zatoichi’s name emerges to mean “Master of the First Sword”. The dichotomy between the blind masseur and skilled swordmaster is explored beautifully in the film versions of “Zatoichi”, so make sure to watch them any day you feel like entering the world of Samurai Japan.
About the Author
Browse Samurai Swords and Armor and Japanese Stick Swords and learn more about the way of the Samurai.
Damast Schwert / Damascus Short Sword
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Drawn with the Sword $5.48 James M. McPherson is acclaimed as one of the finest historians writing today and a preeminent commentator on the Civil War. Battle Cry of Freedom, his Pulitzer Prize-winning account of that conflict, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called "history writing of the highest order." Now, in Drawn With the Sword, McPherson offers a series of thoughtful and engaging essays on some of the most enduring questions of the Civil War, written in the masterful prose that has become his trademark. Filled with fresh interpretations, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Drawn With the Sword explores such questions as why the North won and why the South lost (emphasizing the role of contingency in the Northern victory), whether Southern or Northern aggression began the war, and who really freed the slaves, Abraham Lincoln or the slaves themselves. McPherson offers memorable portraits of the great leaders who people the landscape of the Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant, struggling to write his memoirs with the same courage and determination that marked his successes on the battlefield; Robert E. Lee, a brilliant general and a true gentleman, yet still a product of his time and place; and Abraham Lincoln, the leader and orator whose mythical figure still looms large over our cultural landscape. And McPherson discusses often-ignored issues such as the development of the Civil War into a modern "total war" against both soldiers and civilians, and the international impact of the American Civil War in advancing the cause of republicanism and democracy in countries from Brazil and Cuba to France and England. Of special interest is the final essay, entitled "What’s the Matter With History?", a trenchant critique of the field of history today, which McPherson describes here as "more and more about less and less." He writes that professional historians have abandoned narrative history written for the greater audience of educated general readers in favor of impenetrable tomes on minor historical details which serve only to edify other academics, thus leaving the historical education of the general public to films and television programs such as Glory and Ken Burns’s PBS documentary The Civil War. Each essay in Drawn With the Sword reveals McPherson’s own profound knowledge of the Civil War and of the controversies among historians, presenting all sides in clear and lucid prose and concluding with his own measured and eloquent opinions. Readers will rejoice that McPherson has once again proven by example that history can be both accurate and interesting, informative and well-written. Mark Twain wrote that the Civil War "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." In Drawn With the Sword, McPherson gracefully and brilliantly illuminates this momentous conflict. |